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Obama’s 4 Billion Dollar Crackdown on Health Care Fraud
President Obama’s crackdown on health care fraud recovered $4 billion last year alone. The Obama Administration extended the life of the Medicare Trust Fund by, among other measures, cutting waste and subsidies in addition to recovering more than $4 billion dollars from health care scams last year alone.
Here’s the Obama campaign ad to tout these numbers:
The campaign wrote, “To you and your loved ones, Medicare is personal and to a president raised by his grandparents, it’s personal too. And starts with protecting your Medicare from health care scam artists who prey on seniors. President Obama is leading the most successful crackdown on health care fraud ever, already recovered four billion dollars from health care scams last year alone; to preserve Medicare now and for the future. A commitment to Medicare as personal as yours.”
Between 2009 And 2011, convictions under The Health Care Fraud And Abuse Control Program increased by over 27 percent and the number of defendants facing criminal charges filed by federal prosecutors in 2011 increased 74 Percent Compared With 2008. [Healthcare.gov, 02/14/12]
Business Week wrote, “Federal authorities say they recovered $4.1 billion in health care fraud judgments last year, a record high which officials on Monday credited to new tools for cracking down on deceitful Medicare claims. The recovered funds are up roughly 50 percent from 2009.”
The New York Times explained the Obama initiative was “designed to woo Americans on both sides of the political fence; both conservatives and liberals can embrace going after wasteful government spending and overpayments to insurance companies.”
What was that about fiscal conservatism? Yeah, that’s what we thought.
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9 Responses to Obama’s 4 Billion Dollar Crackdown on Health Care Fraud
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Ken
Jun. 2nd, 2012 at 10:41 am
How much of that came out of Rick Scott’s conglomerate?
Moongal6
Jun. 2nd, 2012 at 1:12 pm
As a recently retired ICD-9 Medical Coder, I brag on this part of the Obama administration daily and with fervor.
No one pays attention to this, but it is huge. The last administration encouraged fraud. It helped their buddies in the ‘medical’ business have huge profits and they knew they would not likely be prosecuted and it helped in the effort for an early demise of Medicare. It was a win, win for them.
The day President Obama took office he went after Medicare fraud. Very few noticed, especially the media.
I wish things like this would end up on the front page of the NYT.
I have been keeping track of this for years and I know this administration will be ever vigilant. This crackdown is one of the many reasons the conservatives want him outta there.
Thank you again Sarah, for paying attention and for all you do.
Eli Cabelly
Jun. 2nd, 2012 at 4:02 pm
Here’s a victory for reducing fraud and waste in government. Here’s a victory for everyone who wants smaller government. Here’s a victory for Obama.
Deborah
Jun. 2nd, 2012 at 4:56 pm
It sounds good for a campaign, but the reality isn’t as great. Medical facilities/doctors overcharge, Medicare refuses to pay for or takes back the overcharge, and (by law) the PATIENT has to pay for it! Great. All this says is that Medicare patients had to pay an EXTRA $4 Billion, which may throw some people into the street. It won’t affect Obama, though. Homeless people can’t vote!
Sarah Jones
Jun. 2nd, 2012 at 5:32 pm
That’s some crazy misinformation you have going. If you notice, it started in 2010 and so it was about governing. Now how do you get to Medicare charging people 4 billion dollars when fraud is stopped? See, that is 4 billion LESS paid OUT, so it won’t cost anyone more.
It saves money.
Homeless people are allowed to vote. Fischer v. Stout. It used to be that they could list a shelter or park as their address but now they need to use the shelter in order to get around Republican voter caging and they’ll have to check back in with that same shelter to collect mail weekly in order to avoid being caged by GOP. The need to own property in order to vote has been done away with until Republicans found a way to exclude the homeless with their massive voter caging, signature laws, and voter ID laws. But it is still their legal right to vote. Whether or not they get to exercise it is another matter completely.
But we know Republicans don’t really care about the homeless. Please.
www.nationalhomeless.org/...
A Walkaway
Jun. 2nd, 2012 at 8:19 pm
National Coalition for the Homeless… good organization, lots of good information and solid research there. I’ve drawn on their work and on other organizations (like the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the National Alliance to End Homelessness) in my research and advocacy for the poor.
I hadn’t noticed too much about the healthcare fraud, except that I seemed to notice a lot more arrests and people being put in prison. I’m quite pleased at this… it should be headline news. Now if we can get the public (really, the right wing bigots) to realize that it’s more of a white collar problem than anything, we will have accomplished much.
Adrian
Jun. 3rd, 2012 at 2:52 am
If you read it carefully, it’s about fraudulent billing. Billing the government for treatment that was not done or unnecessary. If they were to send a bill to your home for something they haven’t done on you, I sure hope you would notice before paying out.
jbunny
Jun. 2nd, 2012 at 7:43 pm
It’s about time someone took care of healthcare fraud!
Matt Dunham
Jun. 3rd, 2012 at 7:44 am
Amen